This invention is concerned with wire and cable coatings prepared from an essentially non-blended polyketone polymer, as well as blends of thermoplastic polyurethane polymers with the novel polyketone polymers.
The general class of polyketone polymers having carbon monoxide and one or more ethylenically unsaturated hydrocarbons has been known for some years. Brubaker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,286, produced such polymers of relatively low carbon monoxide content in the presence of free radical catalysts such as benzoyl peroxide. British Patent No. 1,081,304 produced such polymers of higher carbon monoxide content in the presence of alkylphosphine complexes of palladium as catalyst. Nozaki extended the process to arylphosphine complexes of palladium. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,412.
More recently, the class of linear alternating polymers of carbon monoxide and unsaturated hydrocarbons, now known as polyketones, has become of greater interest, in part because of improved methods of production. Such methods are shown by European Patent Application Nos. 181,014 and 121,965. The disclosed processes employ, inter alia, a compound of a Group VIII metal such as palladium, an anion of a non-hydrohalogenic acid having a pKa below 2 and a bidentate ligand of phosphorus. The resulting polymers are generally high molecular weight thermoplastic polymers having utility in the production of articles such as containers for food and drink and parts for the automotive industry or structural members for use in the construction industry.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,689,460 and 3,694,412 disclose two other processes for preparing polyketones. The catalysts described therein are complexes of a palladium, chloride or allyl palladium chloride and two trihydrocarbyl phosphine monodentate-like ligands, such as triphenylphosphine.
Another process for preparing polyketones is discussed by Sen and Li in an article entitled "Novel Palladium (II)--Catalyzed Copolymerization of Carbon Monoxide With Olefins", J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 104, 3520-3522 (1982). This process generates higher yield than the other disclosed processes.
The process for preparing polyketones, disclosed in European Patent Application No. 121,965 is directed towards a preparation of polyketones to obtain a high yield, wherein a mixture of carbon monoxide and alkenically unsaturated hydrocarbon is polymerized in the presence of a Group VIII metal catalyst containing ligands, wherein hydrocarbon groups are bonded to an element from Group Va, characterized in that, as catalyst, a complex compound is used that is obtained by reacting a palladium, cobalt or nickel compound, a bidente ligand of the general formula: EQU R.sub.1 R.sub.2 --M--R--M--R.sub.3 R.sub.4,
in which M represents phosphorous, arsenic or antimony, R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, and R.sub.4 are identical or different hydrocarbon groups, and R represents a divalent organic bridging group having at least two carbon atoms in the bridge, none of these carbon atoms carrying substituents that may cause stearic hindrance, and an anion of an acid with a pKa of less than two, provided the acid is neither a hydrohalogenic acid nor a carboxylic acid.
Blends of uncured polyurethane elastomer (which has been processed in a particular manner) with a non-specific polyketone, have been taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,833,740 issued to Verbanc and assigned to DuPont. The specific types of polyketone/polyurethane blends disclosed therein were prepared from ethylene/carbon monoxide copolymer having molecular weights of about 700 to 1500 to obtain ultraviolet degradable polyurethane. The ratio of ethylene to carbon monoxide in the polyketone was between 5:1 and 12:1. The polymers used therein were not the linear alternating polyketone polymers of the present invention.
Blends of the novel polyketone of the present invention with urethanes have been taught in copending application Ser. No. 187,192, filed April 28, 1988 (Attorney Docket No. T-4363). There exists a need for a novel coating for wires and cables which can be essentially the non-blended novel polyketone polymer of a blend of the novel polyketone with a urethane.
It has been desired to provide a wire and cable coating with a good variety of properties, including one or more of the following: toughness, softness, solvent resistance, abrasion resistance, pinch resistance, surface hardness, good conventional tensile and/or electrical properties for standard cable end uses and resistance to elevated temperatures. The present invention provides a novel cable coating with one ore more of these properties.